Perspective
by the good dr
Summary: The war with Grindelwald showed the world just how bloody a fight with a dark wizard could be. That was why no one fought Voldemort. That is why we do nothing now, as the death eaters regain their power. Set in an isolationist America during GOF.
1. Chapter 1 Salem to Salem, West to East

Dale Franklin looked at his clock, it was currently three in the morning, and he would have gone back to sleep if it hadn't been for the fact that he had to go to school, at Salem Witches Institute, on the east coast, while he lived on the west coast. The three hour time difference between Salem Massachusetts and Salem Oregon was something he had finally gotten used to after three whole years. Though most of his second grade was still a blur, do to a particularly nasty possession by an insane ghost. He was still prone to fits of insanity at times, though they had decreased in number and severity substantially in two years.

He grabbed his school uniform which lay folded on the desk in the middle of his room; which consisted of a simple grey robe, a white shirt, black slacks, and black dress shoes. He quickly dashed to the bathroom to take a quick shower, which helped to wake him up to some extent. He could barely see his face in the fogged up mirror as he left, though he was fairly certain his eyes were still red. He vowed that would be the last time he would ever stay up till ten on a school night. Ten minutes later he was set to go, having packed his backpack and school supplies the night before.

Dale practically ran downstairs into the dimly lit family kitchen and towards the fireplace on pure instinct. It took him a second to realize that his siblings were not with him, which made him roll his eyes, and wish he was an only child. He could practically hear his parents screaming at him to not let his sibling be late for school. Seeing as they both worked the night shift at the Department of Justice, they wouldn't be home until a few minutes after the Franklin children left, it could possibly happen any moment if he didn't wake them up.

He threw his backpack on the counter and headed back upstairs to his siblings' rooms. He slammed his fist on his brother's door first, as the youngest Franklin's room was closest to the stairs. He was about to do the same to his younger sister's door when she violently threw it open.

"Is now a bad time to say that none of my school uniforms fit right?" Sarah Franklin asked her elder brother.

"Try an engorgio spell." He suggested to his frantic looking sister.

"What and have it come out the size of a giant? Why don't you…" She was cut short as Dale cast a slightly less powerful version of the spell on the uniform clothing on her bed. She quickly shut the door to change from her pajamas to the school uniform.

Benjamin Franklin, the youngest Franklin, all but jumped out of his bedroom with one shoe on, with the sock covering it, one sock missing, and the other shoe in hand. It would have been more comedic to Dale had he not been in a rush.

"Calm down you've got about ten minutes until school starts." Dale said calmingly to Ben. This was only his second year of magical schooling; and had it not been for the fact that his parents had been awake to see them off during Ben's first year, Dale doubted he would have stopped rushing to realize he didn't have any clothes on. He seriously hoped this wouldn't happen every time his younger brother had a first day of school.

Ben took a second to calm down, and then began to put his socks and shoes on in order; still shaking profusely he tried to put on a smile before he ran downstairs. Sarah exited her room with backpack in hand. Dale grabbed Ben's backpack as he rushed towards the fireplace downstairs. Dale threw the backpack at his younger brother, and picked his own up off the counter. Sarah had already grabbed a pinch of floo powder into the fireplace of the scarcely lit household. It erupted in blue flames.

"School." She said as she waited to be transported to one of the various fireplaces throughout the aforementioned school. Sarah quickly disappeared in a burst of fire. Benjamin followed suit, clutching his backpack tightly and carefully pronouncing the intended destination.

Dale took one last look at the kitchen, then took a pinch of floo powder and said "School."

He felt the familiar tugging sensation of the American floo network pulling him towards his destination.

Dale was pushed out of one of the many fireplaces by the floo network. Finding his siblings in the mess of students arriving through the fireplaces would be impossible to say the least. Salem Institute was a magically enlarged building, which took up relatively little space on the outside. On the inside it was a pentagonal shape, with each side being around three quarters of a mile long. Made out of stone, any passing Muggle would have just seen a rather large looking pentagonal rock, and felt a strange compulsion to walk away as the muggle repellent charms egged them to leave.

Everyone scrambled about to get to their first class of the day. Dale's first class was PE, which was relatively unoccupied in the morning hour. The instructor was an ex Marine drill instructor who only recently seemed to realize he had been discharged about two decades ago. The results were slightly hilarious when Mr. Smith would yell at a first grader to do twenty push ups for some small infraction. Stupid new kids always signed up for the class thinking it would be easy. Most of the students who took the class were Quodpod players who were required to take the class. Dale was one of those many.

The one thing Dale hated about having PE for his first period though was that he had to run to the East wing, which housed the lockers, from the center of the school. The distance itself was not bad, but those who did not feel like getting out of his way through the narrow hallways made him rush to the locker rooms in order to change into his PE gear before seven ten, which was when first period started.

Dale practically fought through drowsy students who were moving towards their first classes of the year as the seven o'clock bell rang.

Running through a group of confused first graders, Dale almost knocked the door off its hinges as he rushed to change his clothes. Not surprisingly the locker room was empty, as the very few who signed up for the class did not sign up for it in the morning.

* * *

Now to clarify on several things

1. The underage use of magic is not defined in canon as being world wide, and even if it is, the Ministry of Magic seems unable to differentiate between magic used by people of age and those not of age, though this is debatable. Acts of random magic seem to be detected some of the time (Harry was able to regrow his hair, not make the hand me down cloths fit, apparate onto the top of the school roof, etc, and was not caught, yet when he blew up his aunt, the ministry did notice it). And the Twins tried to force Ron to make an unbreakable vow (which requires magic) without any fear of being caught by the ministry. Also the Ministry did not seem to notice when Dumbledore used magic at the Dursley residence. This leads me to believe that either the method of underage magical detection is very fallible, or the method only tracks magic usage itself, not who uses it. If Dumbledore had said he was going to be at the Dursley's at x time and date, it is possible the ministry would have overlooked the magical usage at the Dursley's house. And the Twins wouldn't have had to fear because they are from a pureblood household, which does magic all the time.

2. I will keep as much to canon as possible, except when logic dictates something different should happen, or something is largely unexplained in canon (e.g. horcruxes). Floo powder seems like a very useful tool, and I doubt it is limited to Britain as canon states. However to overcome this I have decided that each country will pretty much have its own floo system which operates slightly differently than others, and is incompatable with other countries' floo systems. That is why the American floo powder creates blue flames versus green.

3. American terminology will be used, because this takes place in America. Each year will be the equivalent of one grade. Also American terms will be used for the government, and will be modeled off of the muggle government. Departments will have the exact same names as there muggle counterparts, and will often fill similar roles.

4. Because boarding schools are not popular over here, Dale will be returning home every day. Because Canon only referenced one American school, I decided that the three hour time difference might add an element into the story, thus meaning I either needed to have everyone know how to apparate at a very young age, or just use floo powder. Also because it has been brought to my attention that one school the fourth largest geographical country in the world is highly impractical, I will bring up the fact that all of Europe seems to be taught by three schools. Also The American wizarding population will be so incredibly low that only one school would be practical. From what I have written of chapter two Dale's class will have less than fourty students.

5. Events that are happening in the fourth book will be referenced in news paper articles.

6. Harry Potter himself will be considered less famous than Dumbledore. In order to explain a largely absent American presence in all of the books (because lets face it why wouldn't the British ask for help from anyone in getting rid of Voldemort, I know he was scary but still you figure someone somewhere would think that it would be better to stop him over there, rather than in their own country). I needed to make an excuse to have America full of isolationists. That being said, the war with Grindelwald will be considered a bloodbath for American witches and wizards who fought in it. Most will attribute Potter's fame to be from shear dumb luck. Dumbledore will be seen and equated to an odd fusion of Albert Einstien and George Patton.

7. I will not go past book four unless I like how the story is going, and get enough positive review. I have decided that the in the event I do go past book four, I will use the highly cliched plot of exchange student. Though I will say that to run from being overly cliched I will make Dale's exchange more of a political maneuver by the Ministry of Magic to say that everything is alright.

8. The possesion referenced in the begining will be more of a running gag than an actual plot device.

9. This is a complete and utter overhaul of my earlier story international police. Not much of that plot line will remain. I basically have decided to keep a few of the names and leave it at that.

Chapter completed on December 4 2009 updated December 5 2009.

signed the good dr.


	2. Chapter 2 History is now

Well, sorry for the long delay, especially for such a relatively short chapter. I have no real excuse for the lateness of this chapter, other than the fact that I had some writer's block. Oh and Modern Warfare two has pretty much stolen my soul. It's been a herculean effort to try and take it back. I think I'm making some progress with that.

* * *

Warming up and running around the campus every time he went to school was just a habit for him after three full years; the usual monotony of running around in the long hallways of the school made him zone out, he knew these outer hallways like the back of his hand.

No one talked during the jog, though there was hardly anyone to talk to anyways. Dale's mind wandered to recent events, and somehow he began thinking about the newspaper he had read nearly a week ago, about the attack at the Quidditch World Cup. The sight of the Dark Mark had caused shockwaves, even in the Americas. Any time a dark lord rose to power, or something similar, immigration to the Americas always seemed to dramatically increase. It sent shivers down his spine when he thought about it.

It meant either all of the Western hemisphere would have to travel across the Atlantic to fight a bloodbath nearly as bad as the war with Grindelwald, or be flooded with refugees, and foreigners until his country was no longer his. The xenophobic outlook shared by many American witches and wizards would no doubt lead to a proverbial, if not literal, witch hunt for foreigners. Dale hadn't been alive during the Dark Lord's reign, but even he knew enough about He Who Must Not Be Named to justify that fear.

The fifty minutes of running didn't seem that long to him, and was almost shocked when his former Marine drill instructor of a PE teacher yelled at him to hit the showers.

This was the true reason he liked having PE first thing in the morning, the class always seemed to fit a schedule. Ten minutes of stretching, fifty minutes of exercising, and twenty minutes to clean up and cool off. In his mind it beat having a useless class such as herbology, and if he really needed to he could always finish a homework assignment at the last minute. He took out the schedule he had received in the mail yesterday. He was dreading having history next, not because he hated the subject, but because he knew that Professor Keels would go into a fit about the Dark Mark being cast. Dale had not been old enough to remember the fear associated with the dark lord, nor had any of his peers, which resulted in many of the students ridiculing Professor Keels on his paranoia, something which even he had admitted to.

The bell rang, signaling the ten minute passing period between first and second periods. The one other boy in the locker room, a second grader whose name Dale never caught, heaved his backpack and shot out the door. Dale imagined that either the kid was a brownnoser, who always wanted to be the first to class, or else he had to run to a the opposite corner of the school, which meant that he had to have herbology, potions, or care for magical creatures.

Dale however was relatively lucky, as the history classroom was not that far away, and was less than halfway between the locker rooms and the floo room.

Like all of the classrooms in Salem Institute, it was incredibly large. Though this resulted in fewer classrooms, this was only possible by the school's low student population. Entire grade levels could be taught in most classrooms, and most of the students in Dale's grade were in fact in the classroom when the bell rang to signify the end of the passing period. He sat next to his two cousins Samantha and John. It was either that or sit within ten seats of the Jessica, the girl who had a crush on him. The feeling was far from mutual. It wasn't that she wasn't good looking, far from it; it was that she was irredeemably stupid; and she obsessed over Harry Potter to no end. Dale just assumed she had a thing for people with interesting stories.

Even though Dale had kept his distance as best he could, he could still hear the obnoxious girl's loud rant. "Did you hear what happened at the Quidditch World Cup? I heard that a hundred Death Eaters came out of nowhere and tried to kill everyone. I hope Harry Potter didn't get hurt, his life must be so sad, not knowing his parents and stuff. I hope the exchange program actually works next year, I'd like to go there and…"

"Miss Roberts, if you will please be quiet so I can address the class?" The old professor asked. Dale stopped trying to strangle himself with his hands as the obsessive fan girl shut up. "And Mr. Franklin strop trying to strangle yourself every time Miss Roberts speaks about Harry Potter. And Mr. Franklin," The professor added, looking at John, "every time I see you mimicking another student I will throw you in for detention… one hour before school."

"Eh I've had worse." John muttered.

"My mom's cooking does not count as worse." Samantha retorted under her breath.

"As you all likely know, or as Miss Roberts has likely informed all of you, the Quidditch World Cup was attacked by a group of Death Eaters. Now as I'm sure all of you know the Death Eaters were once the most feared group in all of Europe, back when the Dark Lord was in power." Professor Keels said, as he wrote unintelligible notes on the blackboard. "And during those years when they were in power, England suffered a wave of violence and fear so powerful, that many nations effectively stopped accepting immigrants from other countries, just to lower the likelihood that Death Eaters would try and wage genocidal war against non purebloods."

"Is it true that we sent in special commando style operations back then to try and stop the Death Eaters?" Dale asked.

"No it is not true. Despite what you may have heard there were in fact no military operations taken during that time, everyone was afraid it would be too much like the war with Grindelwald. But I thank you for bringing that up. During that time several vigilante groups sprang up to fight back. Very few actually worked, with most groups failing quickly. The three groups started over here to try and fight the war didn't have enough strength or leadership to effectively fight. The members of all three groups were quickly killed by the Death Eaters." Professor Keels lectured. "Simply put the Death Eaters were unstoppable with the Dark Lord as their leader. Every minor victory against the Death Eaters lead to even more violence for the general populous. Until that fateful Halloween night that is…" Professor Keels stopped for a few moments.

Dale was honestly waiting to hear what Jessica was going to say, if only to make a quick smartass comment. Anything to get the point across that he hated her was perfectly fine with him. Sadly he never got the chance, as the professor brought his attention back to the class, and assigned a three foot essay on the implications of another dark lord coming to power by using the remnants of the Death Eaters.

So for the rest of the period the class did not do much more than write their opinion or they tried to. Many were still stuck in a vacation mindset, and did not wish to start new school year thinking about such thoughts.

Dale was halfway done when the bell rang. He noticed the somber look on the old man's face as he left the classroom, and for the first time, felt a slight twinge of pity for the man who had given him many sleepless nights filled with writing.

* * *

Yeah, I can't remember if I said this might be only ten chapters, but the way things are going it's going to take a lot longer than that. Hopefully I will write a new chapter faster than once every four months.

posted 3/9/10


End file.
